And I’m thrilled that my debut chapter book, THE ENCHANTED
SNOW GLOBE COLLECTION: RETURN TO CONEY ISLAND, released this summer from Clear
Fork Publishing/Spork, with beautiful illustrations by Callie Metler-Smith. I
enjoyed the writing journey and I’m working on finalizing book two during this
ChaBooCha Lite month.

Thank you so much, Becky, for inviting me to blog during
ChaBooCha Lite. I love the community you have created, and I look forward to
spending much more time learning with everyone involved!

For now, members of this special community, here’s a LITE
post to help you get started on your chapter book writing journey.

START WRITING YOUR
CHAPTER BOOK:

1)READ MENTOR TEXTS: Read some books in
the chapter book genre. Go to your local library or bookstore and study at least
five recent chapter books that you can use as mentor texts. As you are reading,
note the following: what topics lend themselves to chapter books? What lengths
are the books? How old are the book’s protagonists? What is the suggested
reading age? Think about the writing style, the pacing, the use of
illustration, the story arc, and more. I also recommend reading chapter books
that have different settings so you can get ideas and see what resonates with
you.

2)BRAINSTORM IDEAS: Spend some time
thinking about your actual story. That may seem elemental, but it is really
important to develop workable ideas. Who are your main characters? What is the
conflict that they face? How will they grow or change throughout the story? Who
are the secondary characters? Are there any subplots? Is the story funny,
touching, scary, creepy, or some combination? What is the setting – family and
home, a school, summer camp, another planet? Is the story set in the past,
present, or future? What are the broader themes you hope to focus on? It may
take some time for your ideas to marinate, simmer, and finally gel.

3)OUTLINE YOUR BOOK: I know that not
everyone enjoys writing with plot outlines, but I suggest giving it a try if
you are new to chapter book writing. Many chapter books use the ten-chapter
format, so start there. Try to outline how your book starts, what happens in
the middle section, and how it ends. Your approach and storytelling may change
as you write, but at least you have a starting point to help you keep the plot
moving forward. And, with an outline, you can always write the chapters out of
order if one area, such as the middle, is giving you trouble or making you feel
stuck. You can always discard your outline, but at least it gives you a
starting point and a roadmap to follow.

4)CHECK OPENING LINES AND CHAPTER TRANSITIONS:
Think about how you will hook the reader right from the beginning. How will
your first line, paragraph, page, and chapter keep the reader excited about
turning pages and continuing to read your story. And remember that each chapter
can work almost as a mini-story, with its own story arc with a beginning,
middle, and end. And each chapter ending should contain a transition, almost a
cliffhanger, that keeps the reader engaged and wanting more.

5)JUST GET STARTED: Sit down and start writing! It’s been said
before but it’s worth repeating: it’s much easier to edit words that are
already written than to stare at a blank page or screen. Try to write without
editing yourself too much as you go along. Maybe try writing freely until you
have a chapter or two and then go back and make some edits. At some point, you
will send your draft to your critique partners (maybe even another writer you
meet this month in this writing group!). But for now, just keep going and get
the story written.

Good luck with your chapter book writing this month during CHABOOCHA
LITE and in the future! I look forward to finding your books in libraries and
bookstores and to reading them all!

*****

Melissa Stoller is the author of the debut chapter book
THE ENCHANTED SNOW GLOBE COLLECTION: RETURN TO CONEY ISLAND (Clear Fork
Publishing, July 2017); the debut picture book SCARLET’S MAGIC PAINTBRUSH
(Clear Fork, 2018); and THE ENCHANTED SNOW GLOBE COLLECTION: THE LIBERTY BELL
TRAIN RIDE (Clear Fork, 2018). She is also the co-author of THE
PARENT-CHILD BOOK CLUB: CONNECTING WITH YOUR KIDS THROUGH READING (HorizonLine
Publishing, 2009). Melissa is a Regional Ambassador for The Chapter Book
Challenge, an Admin for The Debut Picture Book Study Group, an Assistant for
Mira Reisberg’s Children’s Book Academy, and a volunteer with SCBWI-MetroNY.
Melissa writes parenting articles, and in previous chapters of her life, she has
worked as a lawyer, legal writing instructor, and early childhood educator. She
lives in New York City with her husband, three daughters, and one puppy. When
not writing or reading, she can be found exploring NYC with family and friends,
travelling, and adding treasures to her collections.

7 comments:

I just saw this, so am starting a bit late, but I have a set of stories I wrote years ago. They are a mess at this point, but maybe now is the time to dig them up and do some cleaning. By the way, the CB I wrote for this years ChaBooCha, was just sent out to several agents yesterday. Feeling hopeful.

Great post, Melissa!! Thank you for the excellent advice on getting started writing chapter books. I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer and do not use an outline per se, I do, however, have lists of names of towns, male and female names to choose from and words to use in whatever language I may be writing about, as well as the flora and fauna, the clothing, the food, and children’s games that may be in my stories... but to me these are research notes not an outline.

I won't qualify for give away as I'm in Australia, but I love what you've said here, Melissa. I did a chapter plan for my second chapter book (the one I'm working on) but I didn't for my first book. I can say, having a chapter plan made it soooo much easier. I wrote lots of stuff in the first book that I had to delete because it didn't work within the story. So I am no longer a pantser!

Melissa’s helpful questions offer a great way for thought-provoking entry into the world of writing chapter books. I’ve saved these suggestions and will be using them regularly during the planning, writing, and revising phases. Many thanks indeed, and well done Melissa on producing a fantastically enchanting chapter book!

Great post, I am novel reader and almost 100+ books already read. I love to read romance and fiction novel. Usually I proffered eBooks rather than ordinary Books. I download eBook copy for me and read the novels. But from Last year I am thinking to became writer of my own story and here is your post helps me a lot to start my own novel. Thanks for sharing thoughts in blog post.

Chapter Book Challenge

This is a challenge to write one chapter book in one month. The first one will be running in March 2012, and you can join in by the 1st of the month. There will be progressupdates, inspirational posts, and guest posts by published chapter book authorsand agents. There will even be some terrific prizes!

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